BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) ? Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin is being pursued by Florida Atlantic to become the Owls' next head coach, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Friday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President-elect Donald Trump shut down some of his companies in the days after the election, including four that appeared connected to a possible Saudi Arabia business venture, according to corporate registrations in Delaware.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A federal judge allowed Wisconsin's presidential recount to move forward Friday as a another federal judge in Pennsylvania planned to take the weekend to decide on a Green Party-backed request to recount paper ballots and examine election computer systems for signs of hacking.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? A small airplane ferrying a father and his two teenage children to Anchorage presumably plunged into an expansive Alaska lake shortly after taking off from a nearby rural community, officials said Friday.

By Laila Bassam ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - At the side of the road sat a woman in her late 20s, veiled, dressed in black, and weeping as she cradled her baby. "My milk is dry from fear and panic." After the Syrian army fought rebels in Aleppo's Old City, hungry and terrified civilians have emerged from their cellars into a wasteland of ruins. The rubble and shrapnel on the streets around Bab al-Hadeed district on Friday revealed the ferocity of the battle this week that gave Syria's army control of the historic area, bringing it close to its biggest victory after nearly six years of war.

By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city's rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian army and its allies had recaptured 32 of east Aleppo's 40 neighborhoods, about 85 percent of the area, he said. There were no reports the Syrian army had made significant gains.

PLUM, Pa. (AP) ? A school district where a black student was upset that a classmate was allowed to wear a sweatshirt depicting the Confederate flag said on Friday that after more students went to class wearing Confederate flag clothing it must be banned.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for a post in President-elect Donald Trump's administration Friday, putting an end to his ill-fated bid to lead the State Department.

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) ? Ghana's longtime opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo won the presidency late Friday on his third run for the office, a race that was largely seen as a referendum on how the incumbent party had managed the economy in this long stable democracy.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. Homeland Security Department moved closer Friday to solving the mystery about why the state of Georgia believed the federal government was trying to hack its election systems.

Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh said on Friday he rejects the outcome of last week's election that he lost to opposition leader Adama Barrow and called for fresh elections. The announcement made on state television throws the future of the West African country into doubt after an unexpected election result that ended Jammeh's 22-year rule and was widely seen as a moment of democratic hope. Human rights groups said Jammeh's government detained, tortured and killed opponents during his rule and his defeat sparked wild celebrations.

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump's Energy Department transition team sent the agency a memo this week asking for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers, alarming employees and advisors. The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and seen by Reuters on Friday, contains 74 questions including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. It asked for a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environment regulations.

DETROIT (AP) ? Ford Motor Co. is going ahead with plans to move small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico despite President-elect Donald Trump's recent threats to impose tariffs on companies that move work abroad.

NEW YORK (AP) ? The annual Billboard Women In Music event featured emotional and heartfelt speeches about the uphill battles women face in the music industry, including personal stories from top honoree Madonna and pop singer Kesha.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? A refrigerator was ruled out as the cause of a fire at a warehouse in Oakland that killed 36 people, but investigators were still looking at electrical systems as possible ignition sources, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Friday.

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) ? An Alabama execution in which a prisoner heaved his chest, coughed and appeared to move offers more evidence that a drug used to sedate inmates before they are put to death should not be used in lethal injections, critics of the drug said Friday.

By Jessica Toonkel, Kate Holton and Pamela Barbaglia NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has struck a preliminary deal to buy the 61 percent of British pay-TV firm Sky Plc it does not already own for around $14 billion, five years after a political scandal wrecked a previous bid. The proposed offer of 10.75 pounds a share in cash, which is backed by Sky's independent directors, would strengthen the position of James Murdoch - who is both chief executive of Fox and chairman of Sky - in his 85-year-old father's media empire. People familiar with the matter said Fox had pounced after Britain's vote to leave the European Union in June sent the pound down about 14 percent against the U.S. dollar and Sky's share price tumbling.

NEW YORK (AP) ? Milwaukee right-hander Phil Bickford, the 18th overall pick in baseball's 2015 amateur draft, has been suspended for the first 50 games of next season following a second positive test for a drug of abuse under the sport's minor league drug program.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Coal-state Democrats waged a fight for health benefits for thousands of retired miners, pointing to President Harry S. Truman's promise 70 years ago guaranteeing a lifetime of coverage. The stopgap spending bill contains a short-term fix and the issue will be revisited next spring.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate pushed to avert a government shutdown at midnight Friday as coal-state Democrats evoked President-elect Donald Trump in pleading for a more generous extension of health care benefits for retired miners.

Roof told investigators after his arrest for the June 17, 2015, massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston that he estimated he had killed five people as retribution for perceived racial grievances. "I had to do it because somebody had to do it," Roof said in the taped confession.

In the heat of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump accused primary rival Ted Cruz of being controlled by Goldman Sachs because his wife, Heidi, previously worked for the Wall Street giant. He slammed ...

NEW YORK (AP) ? Donald Trump's continued stake in television's "Celebrity Apprentice" adds to questions about potential conflicts between his personal and public responsibilities, while raising new ones about NBC.

The company that owns Montana's largest mining complex announced Friday that it will be acquired by a South African company for $2.2 billion in a deal that requires U.S. government approval. Sibanye Gold ...